COMMUNICA No.5 COMMUNICA no.5 V2.0 | Page 2

COMMUNICA | Issue Five EDITOR RECOGNISING THE RISE OF RURAL ABOUT 240 something years ago, the UK underwent an - or rather, ‘the’- industrial revolution. Britain emerged to become a much-celebrated pioneer of industry, at the time, developing new technologies and even advancing the boundaries of science. These were exciting times, as cities developed and grew up from the investment and opportunity in industrial growth. What resulted was also a mass migration of people who had previously worked in rural farming, moving into the cities, attracted by the new opportunities available. Today in the UK, we still have a very similar scenario, we have ‘commuter belts’ and people who live in the city during the week, during work time, before returning to the countryside to spend their weekends at home. John Henry But the advent of ‘next generation’ telecoms connectivity means in a few years’ time the working habits and work/home lifestyles will change. THE Those people living outside of the cities may not even need to leave their homes - as the office OF experience will become increasingly more digital. Let’s face it, this sounds quite attractive as the thought of battling crowded trains, and enduring early wake-up calls in the darkest of the winter’s days to make the journey into the city, is hardly empowering. But up until recently, there have been barriers in place preventing this change, as many of these rural communities and commuter belts haven’t had sufficient connectivity to log in to work from home, or even been able to stream the latest content on their devices - that was until quite recently. Investment in pure fibre ‘Ultrafast’ connectivity from provider, Gigaclear, has started bringing essential fibre optic connectivity to the countryside. Rural areas have started to receive some of the fastest internet connections at near-gigabit speeds - something we’re celebrating in this issue. It’s funny when you think about it, that attraction to the city might change altogether with the current rollout of Ultrafast connectivity, almost like a mini- reverse revolution. Issue No.5 COMMUNICA RISE THE STORY OF HOW GIGACLEAR BECAME THE LARGEST INDEPENDENT RURAL PURE FIBRE PROVIDER By Mike Surrey Interim Chief Executive Officer Gigaclear Plus: DATA DANGERS / OVERHEAD’S CONTRIBUTION TO FTTx / GEOSPATIAL AWARENESS Rob Andrews COMMUNICA, Creative Editor 2 | ^ Above, Gigaclear’s Interim Chief Executive Officer, Mike Surrey, has penned the company’s story in a special feature for COMMUNICA No.5.